A World of Possibilities

Of Pigs and People

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PST

The indiscriminate use of antimicrobials in large-scale industrial meat production is building bacterial resistance to the most effective antibiotics on which our national and global health systems depend. Recorded largely on location on Midwestern hog and poultry farms, this program features interviews with farmers and others who are raising hogs by healthier and more humane ways.

Two Grains of Sand

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PST

Nature and Humanity are running off the rails and governments stand seemingly helpless before the juggernaut. Into the breach are stepping new players, inventing strategies to transform the way we do things, and they are forging surprising alliances in the process. Two initiatives are seeking to move the needle on urgent issues: one on climate change, the other on the global tea industry.

Crowd-Sourcing Innovation

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 08:00:00 PST

There have always been brilliant innovators working outside established institutions. With the emergence of open systems of innovation made possible by the Internet, now a far wider range of individuals, teams and institutions can participate in the problem-solving process. Not only for technical challenges, but for those thorny social problems which have eluded the best minds of our time.

The Miner's Canary: First Peoples' on Climate Change

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 26 May 2009 08:00:00 PST

Indigenous peoples, living closest to nature, feel the threat of climate change first. They have a potent message to deliver to the climate treaty negotiators meeting in Copenhagen in December 2009. The climate is changing the way they've lived forever, so they're adapting in order to endure. Do the rest of us have the wisdom and ingenuity to change along with the changing climate?

Sick and Tired: The Movement for Paid Sick Days

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 12 May 2009 08:00:00 PST

The first advice given in response to any health emergency such as SARS, swine flu, etc., is to stay home if you feel yourself getting sick. But half of all working Americans can't afford to miss work. Most work in low wage jobs where close interaction with others is constant and unavoidable. 127 countries provide at least a week of paid sick days a year - but not the United States.

Open Source Science

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:00:00 PST

The outbreak of potential pandemics has driven home the urgent need for more rapid responses to public health threats. In order to respond more effectively, we need to create a more open system for the exchange of vital health information. Medical and scientific research pioneers are laying the foundation for a global health commons to accelerate the pace and effectiveness of crucial discoveries.

Peace, Justice - or Both

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:00:00 PST

Peace or Justice? That question takes on an anguished poignancy these days in war ravaged societies from Bosnia to Sierra Leone. Peace negotiators and human rights advocates struggle to end the bloodshed and obtain justice for the victims. How does this work in societies whose weak and often corrupt legal structures have been decimated by war?

Building an Innovation Ecosystem

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 08:00:00 PST

Everywhere we look our systems are collapsing in terminal dysfunction. It's forcing us to reinvent the way we do just about everything. But the infrastructure in place to catalyze the kinds of breakthrough innovation we need is still haphazard and inefficient. What kinds of institutions and incentives need to be put in place to spur the innovations we most need to be more efficient and effective?

Putting Our Heads Together

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

The open source movement launched over the past few decades by computer programmers has morphed into a parallel "open innovation" movement. The emergence of cross-sectoral "distributed intelligence" points to the promise of broader and more inclusive networks as the brightest future for the kind of innovation that will be necessary to address our most urgent challenges.

Reviving the Forgotten Continent

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

To many Americans, Africa is a continent of universal, unmitigated suffering, plagued by disease, famine, misgovernance, poverty, and war. While there are more than enough such tragedies on the continent, those who know it well say there's an energy and resilience among Africans that enables them to make much of what little good fortune comes their way. Africa sits on some of the world's most precious mineral wealth. But foreign nations have historically plundered for their own benefit and that of corporations, leaving regions like the oil-rich Niger Delta, Sudan and Chad poorer and less self-sufficient than before their wealth was first discovered. As the U.S., China, India and other industrial powers scour the continent for mineral treasure, we examine how and whether African nations, spurred by a younger generation demanding a different destiny, can negotiate a better deal for their people that benefits the impoverished majority, and not just the few in positions of power who have consistently stolen the proceeds.

Who's This Economy For?

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 08:00:00 PST

As our savings plummet and our debts soar, many of us are starting to wonder not only when we'll get back on track, but whether the track we've been on all these years is the right one to follow. Author, economist and former labor secretary Robert Reich asserts that rather than resuscitate an unjust and unsustainable economy, we should reinvent it to meet a wider range of needs and possibilities.

Impunity and Accountability in Colombia

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 08:00:00 PST

For more than 40 years, Colombia has been caught in the cross fire of "La Violencia": thousands dead, millions more driven from their homes. Impunity remains the law of the land. Now a series of tribunals and truth commissions are seeking to discover what really happened; to give victims a chance to express their anger and sorrow and perpetrators a chance to confess and serve time or be amnestied.

Fostering Ingenuity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 08:00:00 PST

If necessity is the mother of invention, there's certainly plenty of necessity to go around these days. But are we doing all we can to incubate the innovations we most urgently need? We'll learn about how to harness our collective genius to address our most urgent needs, and about new threats that could derail our best efforts.

Pan America's Promise

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 27 Jan 2009 08:00:00 PST

Over the decades, U.S. policies towards Latin America have lurched between intervention and apparent indifference, demonstrating its dominance while leaving a residue of resentment. Now, on both sides of the border, new hope emerges for an era of warmer relations. What have been the impacts of U.S. policy, and how are they likely to change in an era of renewed hope but severe economic distress?

Growing the Green Collar Economy

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 08:00:00 PST

In hard times most of us are grateful for any job, but as we face increasing unemployment, poverty, and climate change, the Obama administration proposes to put thousands of Americans to work insulating homes and public buildings, installing solar panels, and reclaiming industrial wastelands. Majora Carter and Van Jones have helped place green collar jobs near the top of the national agenda.

Failing Our Way to Success

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 08:00:00 PST

At a moment when most all the systems that govern our lives have lost their grip on reality, we're forced to rethink and reinvent the way we do just about everything. Crucial to that transformation is learning how to innovate faster and better than ever before. In this weeks show, two leading students of innovation consider the pivotal role that experimentation plays in achieving eventual success.

Share Values or Shared Values: Re Thinking our Priorities

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 08:00:00 PST

Hard economic times aren't good for much, but they do get us thinking. As we sort through the wreckage of our private dreams, we ask ourselves how we could have done it differently - and how, given the chance, we might create an economy more equitable and reliable than the last one.

When the Music Stopped: Economy 2008

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:00:00 PST

It seemed the good times would never end. Pennies from heaven even rained down on Wal-Mart shoppers. Until one day in the fall of 2008, it all came crashing down. This week we sort through Wall Street's ruin and Main Street's rubble to find what went wrong, and what needs to be done to replace a system of brutal trade-off's between affluence and poverty, with a balance of shared prosperity.

Geektopia: Google's Innovation Culture

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 08:00:00 PST

Even in hard times, the search engine giant Google continues to boom while GM bites the dust. Is this another dot-com fantasy or could this culture of innovation, informality and antic spirit be a harbinger of the next economy? We take a tour of the Googleplex in Mountain View, California, and sit down with Alfred Spector for an intriguing conversation about how to grow a culture of innovation.

The Power in Your Person: Dolores Huerta's Farmworker Odyssey

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 08:00:00 PST

She raised 11 children and co-founded the United Farmworkers Union with Cesar Chavez. At age 78 she still criss-crosses the country to ignite her singular passion for social justice among youth two generations younger. Dolores Huerta is on a restless path to inspire the "Power in Your Person", tempered by a healthy sense of humor about herself and the world.

Green Purchasing

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 08:00:00 PST

What we buy individually is small potatoes beside the quantities purchased by large firms and governments. Little noticed by the rest of us, the market for green products is being decisively boosted by the deliberate choices of city governments, universities, hospitals, and corporations. Filling the supply chain with "green" products can benefit both the environment and the bottom line.

Long Time Coming: Bernard Lafayette's Civil Rights Journey

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:00:00 PST

Today we hear how a close associate of Martin Luther King, together with a pioneering generation of activists, led the desegregation of lunch counters and intercity buses, voter registration movements and Poor People's Campaigns. And we'll hear why, despite the many unfulfilled promises of that era, Bernard Lafayette remains as active and optimistic as ever about human possibilities.

Green Chemistry: Better Living Through Nature

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 08:00:00 PST

Currently, there is woefully little research and development in the green chemistry field and there are no universities teaching it. We need massive investments to make it viable. This week's program will feature leading researchers who will delineate the vision of a green chemistry economy and how green chemistry is presenting solutions to toxic problems.

Second Chances: Finding Purpose in the Second Half of Life

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 08:00:00 PST

Now that the sixties generation is entering its sixties, we'd all better take a deep breath and stand back. Author and cultural anthropologist Angeles Arrien has written a wise guide to The Second Half of Life, and asks questions about the elder quest when youthful ambition or abandon no longer suffice. This conversation will resonate not only with those of a certain age when meaning meets mortality, but also those who have confronted, or will eventually face, finding purpose in the second half of life.

Nobody's a Nobody: Renouncing Rankism, Defending Dignity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 08:00:00 PST

At one time or another just about all of us have endured someone pulling rank on us. In this insightful and provocative conversation, Robert Fuller affixes the name "rankism" to the full range of diminishing behaviors that infect our personal and professional relationships and calls for the creation of a "dignitarian society" where rank may remain but does not serve as a weapon to demean another.

Foundations as Catalysts

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:00:00 PST

Foundations work in a wide range of fields and often with quite different strategies. In this program we follow philanthropic initiatives in two very different realms -- foreign policy and venture philanthropy. In each we see how foundations use their independence to catalyze new solutions to pressing problems at both the local and global level. In the process, their initiatives often attract others in the public, private and nonprofit sectors to invest additional resources.

Teach Your Children Well: Reforming Education in Schools and Society

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PST

There's no more powerful way to transform society than through education. But all too often, we fail to adequately prepare our children for life's challenges. In four stories, we'll explore successful initiatives to transform patterns of dysfunction, from public health campaigns to community building through digital media, from early literacy programs to efforts to repair a broken school system.

Replenishing the Breadbasket: Food and Philanthropy

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 08:00:00 PST

Today's rapidly rising food prices and warnings of food scarcity evoke a haunting echo from a generation ago. Join us as we examine a new "Green Revolution" and the "Blue Revolution", two major foundation-supported initiatives to address two troubling food production trends: low productivity amid growing populations in Africa, and over fishing amid diminishing fish stocks worldwide.

Philanthropy and Health: The Challenge of Effective Giving

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PST

We all see the urgent unmet needs out there, and many of us come up with great ideas to address them. In this, the second in a series of five programs examining the role of foundations as key partners with communities, we'll hear how local civic organizations are inventing ways to deal with the challenges of giving birth, growing up safe and secure, and, at the end of life, dying with dignity.

Shattered Dreams: The Struggle to Reconstruct Iraq

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 08:00:00 PST

While the White House seeks to persuade the American public that the "surge" is reducing violence and enabling Iraqis to create a self-governing democracy, Iraqi and international NGO's are struggling to make that goal a reality. We speak with aid workers, conflict mediators and development specialists as they encounter hostility playing midwife to a new democracy in the "cradle of civilization".

Foundations as the Fifth Estate: Private Wealth for Public Benefit

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 20 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Foundations don't always make back their bets, but at their best they are readers and seeders of promise. In this five-part series on foundation philanthropy, we'll trace the impact of such catalytic grant making on American society. We'll see why foundations play an indispensable role in addressing needs met in no other way: challenging society to live up to its highest aspirations.

Studs Terkel: A Heart as Big as the World

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 13 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Despite his best efforts, like the very establishments he excoriates, Studs has become an American institution. A man of the people, he is also an unapologetic liberal and intellectual in a country that respects neither. In this program, drawn from a nonstop three-hour conversation, Studs reflects on a life spent listening to the battered but unbowed spirit of ordinary and extraordinary Americans.

Resilience: Adaptation and Transformation in Turbulent Times

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 06 May 2008 08:00:00 PST

Resilience ... the capacity to absorb shocks to the system without losing the ability to function. Can whole societies become resilient in the face of traumatic change? In April 2008, natural and social scientists from around the world gathered in Stockholm, Sweden for a first-ever global conference applying lessons from nature's resilience to human societies in the throes of unprecedented transition.

Vanishing and Reemerging: Reviving Biological and Cultural Diversity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 08:00:00 PST

The mechanistic world view that has dominated Western thinking has much to learn from healthy, well-balanced biological systems, as well as from indigenous cultures that have a symbiotic relationship with their environment. This weeks show was recorded at a major international conference on biocultural diversity held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in April 2008.

Hard Power / Soft Power: Peace Building at the Pentagon

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 08:00:00 PST

A landmark 2005 directive issued by the U.S. Defense Department for the first time placed post-conflict "reconstruction and stabilization" on the same level with the U.S. military's role as war-fighter. But the implementation of this directive has led many to fear that in embracing "peacebuilding", the Pentagon is actually militarizing and commercializing it.

Women Who Wouldn't Listen: Wangari Maathai and Frances Moore Lappe

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 08:00:00 PST

Continents apart, in entirely different contexts, two remarkable women took it upon themselves to make a difference. While still in their twenties, Wangari Maatthai, founder of Kenya's pioneering environmental initiative, the Greenbelt Movement, and Frances Moore Lappe, author of the pathbreaking food manifesto and vegetarian recipe book, Diet for a Small Planet, redefined the nature of "women's work" without, in the manner of so many women politicians, relinquishing the nurturing values that give special value to women as leaders. In this special edition of A World of Possibilities, two lives spent breaking the mold of both traditional and feminist perspectives are recounted in candid conversation, each with a focused sense of purpose - to use their unique sensibilities and life experiences to help heal a species and planet grievously wounded by fear, greed and ignorance of its own positive potential.

What Good Are These Things For? The Pragmatic Push to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 08:00:00 PST

In a landmark January 4, 2007 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, former Defense Secretary Bill Perry, former Sen. Sam Nunn, and former Republican secretaries of state George Schultz and Henry Kissinger called for "a world free of nuclear weapons." While this goal has been around since the invention of nuclear weapons six decades ago, never before has such an establishment conservative consensus formed around the proposition. Now an international team of experts is drafting a plan for a phased, decades-long elimination of nuclear weapons. At the same time, Russia has threatened to abrogate a series of arms control treaties in response to Bush administration moves, and trade frictions and growing mutual suspicion between the U.S. and China are souring relations between the two nations. The U.S. war in Iraq and threatened attack on Iran could galvanize open opposition to U.S. strategic plans and spark renewed military competition. These countervailing trends could adversely affect new opportunities for nuclear disarmament. This program assesses these new opportunities and the best ways of overcoming the obstacles to exploiting them.

Russia Resurgent: The Once and Future Super Power

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 08:00:00 PST

Fueled by rising revenues from its vast oil reserves, Russia is experiencing a sudden comeback from its economic and political collapse just sixteen years ago. This program will consider what Russia's re-emergence as a global force could mean for the already diminishing constraints of arms control and for a renewed power struggle between Russia and the U.S. in an increasingly multi-polar world.

Orphans of Conflict: The Plight of Internally Displaced Persons

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 08:00:00 PST

We are all aware of the plight of refugees driven from their homes by war or natural disasters across international borders to huddle in crowded camps in a foreign country. What we hear less about is those who have been uprooted from their homes and abandoned by their governments to wander within their own borders. Referred to by the abstractly bureaucratic term, "internally displaced persons" or IDP's, some 25 million people in 50 countries fall between the cracks of international law, overlooked and under-served by both their governments and international agencies already overstretched to deal with refugees driven outside their own countries. In the Democratic Republic of Congo alone, some 4 million IDP's have been made homeless by decades of fighting and in Iraq several million more. In this program, some of the world's leading experts in forced internal migration describe the nature and scale of the challenge and what is and can be done to meet the needs of these "orphans of conflict."

Home From the War: Re-integrating Ex-Combatants

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

One of the most difficult challenges facing governments, communities and families in the aftermath of civil or international conflict is re-integrating soldiers into civilian life. In recent years, the international community has faced many such situations in Haiti, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guatemala, El Salvador, and Kosovo. Gradually a body of knowledge, skills and techniques is accumulating to inform and guide future efforts. This program highlights the most successful of these re-integration initiatives as identified by leading practitioners in the field and will examine what has made them successful when so many have failed.

Regrowing Community (One Tomato at a Time): The Remarkable Return of Farmers' Markets NEW VIDEO PODCAST!

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

Join us for a stroll through the throngs, the music, the aromas, colors and laughter of The Arcata Farmers' market.

Regrowing Community (One Tomato at a Time): The Remarkable Return of Farmers' Markets

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

Farmers' markets: From four hundred to four thousand in less than two decades. They're sprouting like sunflowers in parking lots, town squares and plazas all across the country. They represent signs of life, connection and community in a culture of isolation and alienation. Join us for a stroll through the throngs, the music, the aromas, colors and laughter of farmers' markets.

A Dream Deferred: The Uncertain Future of Affirmative Action

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 08:00:00 PST

Race: America's taboo topic. It's difficult to talk about and a struggle to address continuing inequities. And now, affirmative action, the set of policies designed to dismantle institutional barriers to equal opportunity, is being curbed and restrained by referenda and judicial decisions. Join us to examine a set of policies that began opening doors of opportunity a generation ago, why some of those doors have been closed, and what it would take to reopen them.

Quite Early Morning: The Life, Times and Legacy of Pete Seeger

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 08:00:00 PST

At age 88, legendary folksinger and social activist Pete Seeger is receiving long-delayed appreciation for his immense contribution to American music and culture. An often controversial figure for his uncompromising stands on social and political issues, he was censured in the fifties by the House Un-American Activities Committee, blacklisted from appearing in mainstream media, and consigned to singing in summer camps till the 1960's, when he led a folk revival that served as the soundtrack for the social movements that shook the conscience of the nation. In the seventies he turned his attention to cleaning up the Hudson River that ran by his Beacon, New York homestead from his sloop, The Clearwater. In this intimate conversation, Pete recalls it all through the prism of mellowed memory, his personal reflections on his life, times and his country's future laced with the sounds of his now-quavering but still strong voice and his eternally tuneful banjo. A classic affirmation of human possibilities from the stubbornly hopeful spirit of an American folk icon.

Iraq Redux: The Consequences of a U.S. Attack on Iran

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:00:00 PST

Four years after its war of choice on Iraq, the White House is once again planning an attack on a Muslim nation. This time it's Iran, a powerful and ancient culture with the world's second largest oil reserves. What would be the impact of a U.S. attack? Join us to assess the likely consequences of the Bush Administration's third war of choice on a Muslim country in six years.

Food Deserts: Nutritional Starvation in the Land of Plenty

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 08:00:00 PST

They're called food deserts, neighborhoods in our inner cities where it's almost impossible to find healthy, fresh, sustainably grown fruits and vegetables. Neighborhoods where all that's available is what's at the gas station mini-mart. Join us this week to examine why food deserts exist in the land of plenty and what they tell us about inequities in our food production and distribution system.

Manhattan Mecca: Muslims in New York

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 16 Oct 2007 08:00:00 PST

New York City is home to as great a range of Muslim adherents as Mecca itself. Africans, African-Americans, South Asians, Central Asians, Southeast Asians, Latinos, Jamaicans, Europeans, Russians, Chinese and more. Many speak with the accents of their native tongues while others talk with a decidedly American twang. Join us to explore the microcosmic diversity of Muslims in New York.

Empire of Corn: From Cornucopia to Corporate Commodity

comments@aworldofpossibilities.com (A World of Possibilities) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 08:00:00 PST

Corn: that most American of grains. These days corn is feed, fuel and ubiquitous sweetener, the biggest of business and some say the core of an industrial food system that's unhealthy for people, livestock and soils. Join us as we trace corn's origins back to Mesoamerica and conduct a forensic exam on the hybridized, genetically modified corn we know today.